Perhaps the most enduring of all Mozart legends is that of the "Masked Messenger", who was featured prominently in the film and play, "Amadeus". The mysterious messenger is also known historically as the "Man in Gray", "The Mysterious Messenger", "The Gray Messenger". We don't know what Mozart called him, nor even what he thought of him. But popular legend has it that the Messenger was a total stranger who appeared one sudden day to commission a posthumus funeral Mass, and Mozart quickly became convinced that he had been visited by the Angel of Death, and that his own death was imminent. Therefore, he was writing the music for his own funeral, and worked feverishly to complete it, almost up to his dying momnet. He did not finish it.

The truth of the matter, I'm sorry to say (after all, it is such a cool story), is far less gothic. Much of the story is the result of pure story-telling for two hundred years; but this much at least is true:

The Masked Messenger (who probably didn't wear a mask at all) was no less than an emmissary of the extravagant Count Walsegg who frequently purchased ghost-written music from Viennese composers to pass off as his own. Every musician in Vienna knew about Walsegg, and Mozart, desperate for cash, probably knew what was happening, but chose not to question too deeply. It was neither the first time--nor would it be the last--that artist have been forced to sell their work through second parties. Mozart was facing a lawsuit for unpaid debts, and he still owed money to at least two or three people he'd borrowed cash from. He had even loaned out money to others, but was just as unable to collect from them as his own creditors were unable to collect from him!

We shall probably never know the full story, because Constanze Mozart guarded the truth with protective jealousy. Nevertheless, the legendary version remains a compelling story after two centuries, known to millions of Mozart lovers worldwide.

No one knows for sure whether or not there really was a second mask, or if this is just the product of myth and legend. There are so many myths and legends about him that have been given seeming validity by their frequent retelling. But early in the 20th century, a startling event occurred which set the music world back on its heels.

A little bronze death mask was found in a Viennese second-hand shop, and not only did it bear a curious resemblance to Mozart, but it had what looked to be the sculptor's signature inside it! The features were slightly distorted in the casting process, but the resemblance is striking. Yet to this date, no solid confirmation on its identity has been made. None of the tests can prove or disprove its authenticity, so it has been kept in a safe place for many years, inside the vast recesses of the Mozarteum.

Since we're discussing creepy Mozart legends, what can be creepier than the legend of Mozart's skull? Even more than the story of the Masked Messenger or the curious deathmask, this is the stuff that horror stories and ghoulish mysteries are made from.

According to legend, when Mozart's body was brought to the cemetary, the sexton thought he might make a fast florin if he could sell Mozart's skull to a rich collector. So his claim was that when the communal grave was emptied in 1809, he happened upon Mozart's skull and harvested it. He could be sure of this claim, he said, because he'd had the gravedigger tighten a wire around the dead Mozart's neck for identification, back in 1791. This is grisly enough--but people who specialize in that sort of thing say that the skull was never in the ground as long as seventeen years. At best, it was buried for six months. So if the sexton really did have mozart's skull, then he actually would have waited around a few months while Mozart "ripened", then had the gravedigger lop off the head with a shovel. Hence, the missing lower jaw and front teeth. The next thing he would have done is to boil it in a pot, and knife marks indicate that what didn't "cook off" was scraped off.

In any case, the skull did make its way into the hands of one rich collector, who nailed a brass name plate into its forehead, adding insult to injury. He eventually passed it on to another party, and it passed through a series of hands before it came to rest at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where it remains to this day.

So is it the real thing, you well might ask?

Though the skull is officially said to be a fake, the debate still rages on. There are arguments over the number of teeth, the existance of certain injuries not known to have occurred, and the like. All the same, you can't argue over this picture of the skull, superimposed over a portrait of Mozart, as well as clay models made up from castings of the skull. Whoever the skull belonged to, he was about Mozart's age, and died from something likely to have been the cause of Mozart's death, as well.

One last thought--the death mask is just slightly smaller than the skull, and that would seem to end the subject. But it doesn't. In the casting of metal images, there is always a certain amount of shrinkage between the original and the copy. So an imperfect fit between the two artifacts is not conclusive.

The death mask and the skull--archaeology or hoaxes?

The verdict is still out, and only you can decide for yourself.

Mozart Mysteries You May Not Know About.

• MOZART'S FAMILY IS MISSING:
  That's completely correct, the graves of almost every one of Mozart's relatives is either lost or empty. His mother was buried in Paris, but the cemetary was destroyed during the French Revolution and the rebuilding of the city. The grave of his sister is said to be empty, and even his father, who shares the same grave space with Mozart's wife, her second husband, and several other people, is rumored to be unidentifiable. However, current DNA testing may finally figure out who he is, and determine if the mysterious Skull is Mozart's after all. Mozart himself had six children, but the four who died in infancy have long since been lost. His oldest son, Karl, had been buried in Italy, but his grave was lost during World War II bombings. His youngest son's grave was also found to be empty. A creey coincidence? Mischief afoot? A conspiracy? Or did they all just become vampires? You decide!

• MOZART'S PET STARLING WAS GIVEN A GRAND FUNERAL:
  This story got a lot of mileage from "Ripley's Believe it or Not" when he published an entry claiming that Herr Starl was given a lavish, expensive funeral while poor Mozart himself was thrown into a pauper's grave. The famous story, however, isn't entirely correct. Herr Starl was certainly given a big send-off, but no great expense was involved. Still, Mozart lived in a day and age where pet cemetaries were unheard of. He wrote a little eulogy poem for the bird, and legend has it that he wrote a funeral march for some of his musician friends to play. And yes, that little grave has disappeared, too!

• BUT HE WAS BURIED IN A PAUPER'S GRAVE, WASN'T HE?:
  I've heard that one all my life, too. But thankfully, it isn't true. He was buried in a communal grave, which was not an uncommon practice at that time. So it was more like being sent to a general ward in the hospital as opposed to being left out on the street to die. No frills, certainly, but considered a decent burial all the same. I suppose it's on the same level as today's "pine-box special".

• WHO MURDERED MOZART:
  There is a long-standing urban legend that Mozart was murdered by someone, but no one has ever been able to make a case stick. There are several candidates for suspects, but most of them came to bad endings on their own. In fact, it could almost be said that in reverse, Mozart in some way brought about their posthumus downfalls!

• DID SALIERI POISON MOZART?:
  No, but that story was circulated almost from the beginning. It has long been believed that at one point there had been some kind of rivalry between them, and many people have tried to construct elegant conspiracy theories to explain the how's and why's, but there has never been any real evidence of such foul play. Whatever happened between them, it haunted poor Salieri for the rest of his long life until it finally drove him mad. He ended his days in an insane assylum, and was given out that he confessed to killing Mozart, then retracted the statement. But he was completely mad by then, so anything he would say would have to be taken with a grain of salt.

• DID FRANZ HOFDEMEL POISON MOZART?:
  This was another story that cropped up at the same time the Salieri story did. Hofdemel, a minor government official and one of Mozart's billiards buddies, attended Mozart's funeral, along with Salieri and Süssmayr (do I hear conspiracy theorists pricking up their ears?), then went home and went crazy, attempting to murder his own pregnant wife and then killed himself. Sounds just like today's headlines, doesn't it? Needless to say, the same people who pointed fingers at Salieri had begun looking at Hofdemel even sooner. His wife had been taking piano lessons from Mozart, so it was whispered that maybe they had been having an affair. Maybe Hofdemel only suspected as much, or maybe he was an abusive husband to start with; but in any case, he was clearly psychotic. And just maybe (they whispered) he poisoned Mozart! However, a closer examination of this shows some big loopholes in the theory. The truth seems to be that Hofdemel was an addicted gambler, and he owed a great deal of money around town. Mozart, however, had borrowed money from Hofdemel just as he had borrowed from Michael Puchsberg. And now, when Hofdemel needed to pay back some less-than-patient gambling partners, Mozart was suddenly gone - and probably died owing him a great deal of money. It may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but it would certainly stand as a strong argument against having poisoned Mozart, who was useless to him dead!

• DID FRANZ SÜSSMAYR POISON MOZART?:
  This question came about more recently, because Süssmayr had more access to Mozart than almost anyone else at the end of Mozart's life, apart from Constanze, her mother, and her gentle sister, Sophie. Süssmayr was skilled at forging Mozart's handwriting, and he could imitate his music. He was believed by many to be a trusted friend, and was sent to keep an eye on Constanze while she stayed in Baden. But it has also been insinuated that he was stealing music manuscripts to canabalize into his own works, and was at the same time on Salieri's personal payroll as a copyist. Plus, he was at the fuuneral. (Wheeee! The conspiracy wheels are turning again!) Some have said his other motive for wanting to off Mozart was because he was in love with Constanze and either had an affair with her or was rebuffed by her. But again, none of these hold water because Süssmayr willingly pointed out which parts of Mozart's Requiem were his own - at least, most of the time he did. And furthermore, Süssmayr was Gay. He was a "safe" escort for Constanze, and was meeting his own lover in Baden--a priest from Kremünster Abby. He was more of a "gofer" than a close friend; in fact, Mozart ridiculed him to his wife, and in one letter to her, makes snide reference about a couple of Süssmayr's Gay buddies dropping by to look for him. Access to Mozart Süssmayr may have had, but it is unlikely that he murdered him, especially with all those women around. In any case, he also came to a bad end. He drank himself to death by the age of thirty-seven.

• DID CONSTANZE POISON MOZART?:
  This is a relatively recent entry in the book of murder suspects. If she was having an affair with Süssmayr (see above), or if she was tired of the poverty and the womanizing (which most modern historians agree is pure hogwash, and probably never really happened!), or even if she just didn't want to risk getting pregnant again, these have all been sited as motivations. A lot of people dislike Constanze because a jealous Leopold disliked her, and because music publishers resented having to do business with a young woman who was smart savvy, and knew how to handle them on their own terms. So a lot of male historians have descibed her only in negative terms. But she devoted the rest of her long life to promoting Mozart's music and to building his legend, and often did so at great personal sacrifice. So again, she is hardly likely to have done the Dirty Deed.

• NO ONE KNOWS TO THIS DAY WHERE HE WAS BURIED:
  That is perfectly true, although they have a general idea of the section of St.Mark's Cemetary Mozart was buried in. All the same, the gravesite erected there for people to pay their respects to is simply a token memorial and not the real thing at all.

• MOZART'S WIFE AND FATHER ARE BURIED IN THE SAME GRAVE:
  Yes they are, and though they despised each other in life, they are stuck with each other in death. It is sometimes said that because she had no grave for her first husband, she had herself and her second husband buried with the next best thing, which was Leopold! I love people who keep all their eggs in one basket!

• MOZART'S NAME DAY WAS ON HALLOWEEN:
  It was once, and in some places still is, traditional for Roman Catholics to celebrate their Name Day as well as their birthday. In Mozart's case, his Name Day was October 31, the Feast Day for St.Wolfgang, for whom he was named.

• MOZART HIMSELF ONCE PLAYED THE GHOSTLY COMMENDATORE:
  A Swedish movie called "The Mozart Brothers" was the story of an avant-garde stage director who despised opera and despised Mozart, and so set about staging the most hideous production of "Don Giovanni" he could think of, hoping to put his own name above Mozart's. he causes many hard feelings along the way. The film was actually a clever parody of the opera itself, and the vengeful ghost of Mozart served in the role of the Commendatore. Clever indeed!

• MOZART IS ALSO A VAMPIRE:
  In the book series begun with "I, Vampire" by Michael Romkey,one of the principle "good-guy" vampires is Mozart himself. Fun to read on Halloween.
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  

  Some Parting Pictures.
  
  
  
  

  This is a mortician's kit of the kind that would have been used between 1790 and 1850.

  
  
  

  The items displayed here were considered "mourning wear", and look a little like things the Addams family might have worn. Here are several small items of gothic- looking clothing, and a close-up of a "mourning necklace", which does anything but cheer up the owner. Such things reached their zenith in the 19th century, but they first started appearing in the 1790's.